


That Kind of Guy

by DesireeArmfeldt



Category: due South
Genre: Character Study, Early Work, Episode Related, Gen, POV Third Person Limited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-22 22:57:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7457080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesireeArmfeldt/pseuds/DesireeArmfeldt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the early days of his undercover gig, Ray Kowalski wonders what kind of guy Ray Vecchio is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Kind of Guy

Ray’s been a week on this crazy-ass undercover job, starting to maybe get into the groove a little and get a handle on who this Vecchio guy he’s impersonating is. It’s both weird and helpful that everyone at the 27th, not to mention Vecchio’s whole giant Italian extended family, is in on the ‘secret.’ Some of them treat it like a game, others with painful seriousness, but just about everyone is willing to bend his ear with random information about what kind of guy Ray Vecchio is supposed to be.

Ray takes mental notes, putting the picture together. Vecchio’s vain about his clothes and has a lousy record with women. Vecchio wants to be a big man, some kind of player, but is apparently kind of a loser. Vecchio loves his family, in that Italian constantly-bickering, go-to-the-wall-for-your-own kind of way. Vecchio’s always looking for the easy way out or the scam or the free prize. Vecchio’s tenacious, and despite an overall solve record that’s nothing to brag about, he’s pulled some pretty impressive arrests out of his ass. Vecchio doesn’t have many friends, he’s the butt of jokes around the station, the guy you dump the shit cases on, the guy you hit up for a fin you don’t plan on paying back. Vecchio’s a good man to have at your back in an emergency. Ray’s not sure he’d pick Vecchio’s shoes to step into, given a choice, but hey, his own aren’t such a great deal, either. No one’s asking Ray to like the guy, just pretend to be him for a while.

Then the Mountie shows up. The Mountie doesn’t like Ray; the Mountie is having none of it. (The Mountie hasn’t been _briefed_ , Ray realizes way later than he should, but who the hell replaces a guy’s partner with an undercover guy and _doesn’t bother to mention it?_ ) The Mountie keeps saying things like _Ray Vecchio would rush into this burning building to rescue a tank of goldfish_ , which Ray knows for almost-certain is bullshit. Vecchio is a good cop and more resourceful than his personnel file makes him out to be, or he wouldn’t have been tapped for a deep-cover mission. But Vecchio is not a suicidal hero. Vecchio’s the kind of guy who knows how to keep his head down and watch his back. Vecchio likes to keep his ridiculous sissy clothes clean and get other people to do the heavy lifting for him. The Mountie rushes into burning buildings; Vecchio drives the getaway car.

Of course, it turns out that when you’re with the Mountie, the getaway car goes up in flames and you have to drive it into Lake Michigan, and then you find yourself stepping in front of the Mountie to take a bullet for him, hoping like hell you take it in the vest and not the face. But hey, it turns out that’s in character, too, because Vecchio pulled the same trick a year ago, without the vest, even.

So, Vecchio’s the kind of guy who takes a bullet for his partner, while said partner is still in the hospital after Vecchio _shot him in the back._ On accident, maybe. No one wants to talk to Ray about that particular episode in Vecchio’s career; the Lieutenant shut Ray down with ice in his eyes the one time Ray asked. And Ray doesn’t have the guts to ask Fraser about it. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t wonder about it, though. About what kind of guy shoots his partner, goes on happily working with him for a year, and then blows town without saying goodbye. About what kind of guy works with that guy, trusts him with his back, and then turns around and gives that same kind of trust to some other guy he doesn’t know from a hole in the wall, as if the trust goes with the name, like the badge, part of the package.

Because the next thing that happens is the Mountie tracks Ray down when he’s playing hooky from Vecchio’s job. The Mountie listens to the pathetic story of Ray’s life, recites Ray’s own service record to him like it’s some kind of benediction on his soul, and drags him back to the station to pull Vecchio’s nuts out of the fire.

Ray’s sitting there with his head still spinning from the emotional whiplash of his encounter with the bogey-man from his past, and deciding hey, maybe he was meant to be a cop after all. Plus a whole bunch of new information about Fraser, namely: 1) Yup, the guy’s still a freak and Ray has no idea what’s going on his head half the time, but 2) He’s a good guy, not just in the white-hat/cop/Grill Knight way, but also in the listens-to-your-troubles-and-actually-gives-a-damn-and-knows-the-right-thing-to-say kind of way, and 3) He considers himself Ray’s friend, and Ray can tell from the way he said it that he didn’t mean just beer-and-poker type friends. But what Ray can’t tell is whether Fraser’s trying to be friends with Ray, himself, or Ray, the guy who’s pretending to be Fraser’s buddy Vecchio.  

But he can’t think about all that stuff while the fucking suits are badgering him about some kind of corruption charges and missing evidence, and this time Ray’s the one who hasn’t been briefed. Which, okay, that’s probably his own stupid fault for blowing off Welsh’s phone calls and not showing up this morning like he was supposed to. So he doesn’t know what the hell’s going on, except that Vecchio’s in deep shit and if he goes down it’s Ray who’s taking the fall for him. It sure looks to him like nine kilos of heroin went poof, vanish on Vecchio’s watch. But it’s Ray’s job to cover for him, and he sure as hell doesn’t want to be busted for something _he_ didn’t do, whether or not Vecchio did it.

So he gets in their faces, and he bluffs, and he bullshits, and he saves the day on sheer balls, and everyone goes home happy except the fucking suits, who go home with their tails between their legs, and serve ‘em right. Welsh is so happy he doesn’t bother to chew Ray out for almost leaving him up the creek without a paddle. Fraser. . .doesn’t say a lot, but Ray can see he’s pretty damn happy, too, and also proud of Ray. (Which ought to make Ray feel good, but actually just makes him feel ashamed of having blown the whole deal off to stake out the cemetery in the first place.)

But here’s the queer thing: as far as Ray can tell, Fraser never had a moment of doubt. He didn’t doubt that Ray would pull the win out of his ass, and he also didn’t doubt that Vecchio was innocent. Now, Ray _still_ doesn’t know whether Vecchio did it or not, all he proved was he can’t pass for Vecchio in a lineup. (Which you’d think would be a problem since he’s _supposed_ to pass for him, but hey, Ray’s not in jail for corruption, and that’s a boat he doesn’t feel like rocking, thank you very much.) So Ray has another piece of information about Vecchio to add to his collection: Vecchio’s the kind of guy who gets himself suspected of corruption; but Vecchio’s also the kind of guy who’s got Fraser convinced he’s on the side of the angels.

But maybe that just makes Fraser a lousy judge of character. After all, he apparently thinks Ray’s a great guy, too. Maybe it’s just that Vecchio’s the kind of guy who can snow a guy like Fraser, who is wicked smart but also obsessed with seeing the good in everyone, even people who probably don’t deserve it.

So Ray keeps his eyes and ears open, trying to figure out Vecchio, even though it becomes pretty clear that no one cares if he acts like Vecchio, he’s not trying to fool anyone who would actually notice the difference. He’s a just a warm body filling a place, taking Vecchio’s cases and taking any shit that comes down the pipe with Vecchio’s name on it. But Ray’s got the itch. Call it the detective’s itch to solve a mystery, call it plain old nosy curiosity. Call it wanting to be prepared, since he’s the guy who’s going to be standing there with a target painted on his chest. Or maybe say he wants to know what makes Vecchio tick because he took this undercover job thinking it was a chance to get away from his own pathetic life and be someone else for a while. And hey, even if no one else cares, there’s no reason Ray can’t go ahead and be the best damn Vecchio he can be.

Then the dead body turns up in the wall of the interrogation room, which blindsides him. By this point, Ray’s almost stopped being surprised at the weird shit that happens around the 27th district and especially around Fraser. Dead guy plastered up in the wall of the interrogation room? That’s nothing.

Except then Vecchio’s own _sister_ freaks out and fingers Vecchio for whacking the guy.

Which sounds all wrong to Ray, because nothing he’s heard about Vecchio says he’s that kind of violent. Shoot your partner in the back on accident? Yeah, that’s Vecchio, loyal but kind of a screw-up. Beat the shit out of the guy who tried to rape your sister? Sure; Vecchio loves his family more than anything. Murder a guy and then cook up an elaborate ridiculous scheme for concealing the body _and get away with it?_ Doesn’t sound like Vecchio at all. But Frannie’s his sister, and Ray’s just some guy who’s been playing catchup since day one, so what does he know?

Fraser, though. Fraser says no, couldn’t have happened. And suddenly Mr. Law-and-Order, Write-My-Own-Reprimands is _concealing evidence—_ concealing a whole friggin’ _dead body_ —to shield Vecchio on this one. Not to shield Ray, although Ray’s convinced that whatever happens, Fraser won’t let him take the fall. Fraser doesn’t abandon his friends, and he wouldn’t let an innocent man go to jail on a murder rap. Ray knows Fraser’s got his back. But it’s _Vecchio_ Fraser’s really out to clear. Vecchio’s not the kind of guy who ices a guy and hides the body, not even for hurting his sister, says Fraser, end of story. And Ray’s happy to believe that, but. . .apparently Vecchio _is_ the kind of guy whose own sister thinks he _would_ do something like that. And okay, Ray would trust Fraser’s judgment over Frannie’s on pretty much anything. But still, it says something about Vecchio. What it says, Ray’s not sure.

He wonders if Vecchio knows what kind of guy his sister thinks he is. He wonders if Vecchio knows what kind of guy Fraser thinks he is.

He wonders what kind of guy Vecchio really is, but he’s never going to know for sure, and it doesn’t actually matter one damn bit. Because Ray’s the one wearing the name right now. He’s the one watching the Mountie’s back, and splitting pizza with him after work, and jumping off roofs after him, and taking his constant shit about manners and behavior and thinking the best of people and paying attention to stuff no one but Fraser could possibly notice or care about.

And he’s the guy Fraser depends on to back his play, to make the impossible shot, to jump through a window to save his ass. And more than that, when Fraser draws some crazy idealistic line in the sand, to be the one person who doesn’t just shake his head in admiration and walk on by, but rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. Which shocks the hell out of Ray, because that is not at all the kind of guy he’s used to seeing in the mirror when he shaves, but you know what?

That’s the kind of guy _this_ Ray Vecchio is.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this fic ages ago, early in my due South career, and then abandoned it because I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with it. I found it in my files recently, and I like what's there, although it seems like "nothing much new" even more to me now than to the me of 2012, so I figured I'd wrap it up and post it.


End file.
